BioUtah Life Sciences Awards honor five for health care innovation

BioUtah, a trade association serving Utah’s life sciences industry, recently presented its 2024 BioUtah Life Sciences Awards at the Mayer Brown Utah Life Sciences Summit in Salt Lake City for significant contributions to Utah’s life sciences community.

“We’re excited to unveil this year’s awards,” said Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah. “Each individual and company receiving an award has made exceptional contributions to our industry, bringing life-changing medical technologies to patients across the globe.”

“These awards reflect the dynamic leadership and culture of health care innovation we have here in Utah,” said Dr. Myles Greenberg, CEO of Alucent Biomedical and chair of the BioUtah board of directors.

Dr. Wm. Dean Wallace, CEO of Liger Medical, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions as a physician, innovator and entrepreneur who has pioneered new life-changing technologies, including medical products to improve and advance women’s health.

Wallace obtained an MD and PhD from the University of Utah, then founded and led several medical device companies. Liger Medical is a new company that focuses on treating pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix with the hope to eradicate cervical cancer worldwide. In addition to Liger, he previously served as founder and CEO of Clinical Innovations, based in Murray, and CEO of Utah Medical Products, based in Midvale. Both companies continue to operate today.

Wallace has taught as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Utah and is listed as inventor on over 20 medical patents related to women’s health care medical devices.

Brad Brown, founder and executive chairman of ATL Technology, is Executive of the Year for his leadership in expanding the breadth and reach of ATL’s manufacturing footprint, which now includes facilities in Costa Rica, China, the United Kingdom and, most recently, Minneapolis.

Brown has been a leader in the medical device space for over 20 years. He has a mechanical engineering degree from Brigham Young University and founded ATL in Springville in 1993. He built the company into an integrated designer and manufacturer of finished complex medical device products. ATL currently makes products for nine of the top 10 medical device companies in the world and has manufacturing on three continents.

Jay Muse, president and CEO of Piper Access, is Entrepreneur of the Year for his spirit and novel work to deliver new, innovative catheter technologies to improve and save lives. While at Piper Access, he co-invented a novel intraosseous access that provides the first-of-its-kind blood-borne pathogen protection to clinicians. That device was sold to BD in 2019.

His most recent invention, the Stiletto Extended Dwell Catheter, was developed at SlipStream Medical and is being sold commercially by Avia Vascular. Slipstream Medical merged with Avia Vascular earlier this year. At his first company, Talon Surgical, he invented and developed the Rook epicardial access device to provide safer access to the heart for procedures such as VT ablation and left atrial appendage closure. That device was sold to Circa Scientific in 2023.

Vic Hockett, associate commissioner of Talent Ready Utah (TRU), Utah System of Higher Education, was awarded the Friend of the Industry honor for his partnership and contributions to workforce development strategies for the life sciences industry, including developing targeted funding programs at institutions of higher education, and supporting industry internships and returnships.

TRU is charged with connecting academia and industry.

During the 2024 legislative session, Hockett and TRU worked with BioUtah to champion a program that resulted in $4 million being allocated to higher education to train workforce for the life sciences. Hockett has over 20 years of experience in the advanced manufacturing and public arenas. While in industry, he served as an adjunct instructor for Utah Tech and created manufacturing programs for Dixie Tech College. Hockett later served five years as the executive vice president of Dixie Tech College before returning to industry to lead a large manufacturing company as chief operating officer.

Hockett has overseen the efforts of TRU since 2021. He oversees TRU within the Utah System of Higher Education.

Blackrock Neurotech received the Innovation Impact Award for disrupting the brain-computer interface market with next-generation, implantable neurotechnologies that seek to help millions of individuals with paralysis and other neurological disorders walk, talk, hear, see and feel again.

With Blackrock Neurotech’s brain interface technology, patients have operated robotic arms, maneuvered wheelchairs, sent messages, surfed the web, and engaged with digital media using only the power of their thoughts.

The company was co-founded by Florian Solzbacher, president and chief science officer, and Marcus Gerhardt, CEO. It is enhancing and commercializing their technology, the Utah Array, originating from the University of Utah. The Utah Array has been implanted in humans since 2004. It is the core technology in Blackrock Neurotech’s system, which received a “breakthrough” designation from the FDA in 2021.